First Overworld in Photoshop

[Pank.HQ]

Hi everyone! Well, I've got a start to a map, at least.

I've read some tutorials (there are some fantastic tutorials here!) and looked around a bit, trying to emulate the style of one of the featured maps. This is what I've come up with so far - I'm drawing it in Photoshop and it's my first map ever without the use of CC2.

From my perspective, the rivers look a bit strange. I made them skinnier, but I still think they are too big. I've heard mountain ranges are supposed to "follow" coast lines, but I'm not really sure if I've done that correctly or completely missed the point. I also tried to capture the "aridness on one side, wetness on the other" thing with the mountains, and I guess the rivers help with that...

Anyway, I'd love to hear criticisms, and maybe if anyone has an idea of how to add trees or towns, that would be fantastic as well.

[Pank.HQ]

Er, I was tinkering around and made some small changes on my own - for the better, I think. Didn't mean to double-post but I'm not sure if you can edit uploaded images.

[The Cartographist]

Pank - It's really a very good first effort. I like the colors and the look of the mountains.

Don't worry about double-posting. You could quadruple-post and no one would care. You'll find that lot's of people do that as they continue to work on their WIPs.

As for the rivers. I think that it depends on what scale you are drawing your map at. What I mean is that if the map were thirty miles from the left hand side to the right, the rivers might be appropriately sized. If, however, your map is three hundred miles from the left hand side to the right, then they are DEFINITELY too wide. I would try to narrow them even further. BUT, you have to decide where you want your map to fall between artistic and realistic. A map that is more artistic might have extremely thick rivers, whereas a map that is more realistic would probably have much thinner rivers. ENTIRELY up to you.

Finally, trees and towns. Towns typically happen near water (ease of transportation) or at intersections of roads, or often both. Trees could get into a whole large discussion of climate, weather, etc, etc. I say, just put them where you want them for now.

[torstan]

That's a very pretty map so far. Good work!

[Pank.HQ]

Thanks for the kind words! Very encouraging.

I got lazy and my creative side took over, inventing names and all sorts of things when I should have been focusing on making trees and roads and... oh well. I've had my fun for now, I guess I should work on improving.

Note: I blurred my Nav lines, and wow! What a difference!

But I do have some questions before I go on:

a) I was thinking of how to improve the coast line. If you look to the left of the word 'Mothica,' you'll see a little rocky/cliff squiggle. Does this add anything? Anyone have an idea for a better technique for making the coast stand out? (I don't necessarily want cliffs the whole way, haha.)

I am nervous about drawing roads, hills, swamps, and farms. I've used the search feature and looked at others' maps, but I still don't really know where to start. When I tried drawing a road, it came out... pretty badly , lol.

Well, I can sit here and ask questions all day, really, so any pointers (and I know you have them!) are very welcome.

[Tancread]

Between the Spider Sea and the Bay of the Reaper I am not sure I would want to be a surfer in the Kingdom of Mothica. Nice Map!

[torstan]

I don't think you need to add any emphasis to your coastline. The colour change and nice heavy line make it stand out pretty well. If you still want to do something you can try one of the following:
1. Add an outer glow to the coastline using a drop-shadow from the land with the colour set to white and then set the drop-shadow layer to overlay or soft light.
2. add water ripples to the sea along the edge of the coastline. These can either be in black, or white set to soft light.
3. Add wood-cut like horizontal lines coming away from the coast-line. There's a really well known tutorial on the effect that I can't put my finger on right now.

Hope that helps.

[Steel General]

Great start! Far better than any of my initial attmepts. Can't really give you any more ideas than others already have other than try things out, post them to see what others think, than give it another go or more simply... Trial & Error

[someguy]

Some of the names seem out of place.

Sea of Spiders, I just doesn't sound right, after all what do spiders and the sea have in common.

Also, the bay of the Reaper. It sounds too ominous. The Bay of Cordell would be more likely, as they would have the advantage over who could enter and exit the bay.

And with the Provençal names of Cordell, Crestvale, Wrynne, and Oaks, Mothica seems a bit foreign. Marinath is my suggestion, it has a somewhat ancient sound to it. Gives a feel that the name is older than the kingdom its self.

Beyond that its a very fine map.

[Gamerprinter]

Some of the names seem out of place.

Sea of Spiders, I just doesn't sound right, after all what do spiders and the sea have in common.

Also, the bay of the Reaper. It sounds too ominous. The Bay of Cordell would be more likely, as they would have the advantage over who could enter and exit the bay.

And with the Provençal names of Cordell, Crestvale, Wrynne, and Oaks, Mothica seems a bit foreign. Marinath is my suggestion, it has a somewhat ancient sound to it. Gives a feel that the name is older than the kingdom its self.

Beyond that its a very fine map.

If this is just a creative project and the names chosen were the whim of the moment, then certainly choosing different names can change the spirit of the map. However, more than likely, these names pertain to a particular RPG campaign setting and are required.

If the Sea of Spiders belongs to a gaming world, you can't really change it, or else the map reflects a completely different location.

More than likely, the map isn't stand alone, but part of a game - names cannot be changed in this regard.

For example: Sea of Spiders...

1. This is a fantasy world map, perhaps giant marine spiders live in that sea.

2. Perhaps the crabs here are long legged and resemble spiders, so locals call it Spider Sea.

3. Maybe 1000 years ago, the Crimson Spider Emperor was defeated in a great naval battle here and it was named such.

4. Perhaps Cordell wasn't founded until 200 years after the naming of Sea of Spider.

Point is, names of places are dependant on the original/creator. Who can really say, "Bay of Spiders" is wrong?

GP